In America, even those who trample on the Constitution must pretend to revere it, at least in politics. And so as the national government has been gradually–or dramatically–expanded over the last century, politicians and judges have scrupulously crafted alibis to explain why, golly, it turns out gigantic top-down government really was part of our constitutional design.
 
One of these fibs has grown like a tumor on the Commerce Clause, the enumerated power in Article I, section 8.
 
“Congress shall have the Power … To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.”
 
This was one of the original reasons for replacing the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution, to facilitate trade among the states and prevent wasteful and dangerous commercial conflicts. But, says the Supreme Court, isn’t everything, at some level, about commerce? And so the Commerce Clause has been used as the reason why the national government can regulate wages, wolves, and backyard gardens (whether growing wheat or marijuana), to name just a few.
 
One might think that state governments, even state courts, would resist such federal overreach. All too often that is not the case. Last week, the Washington State Supreme Court happily embraced the overextended Commerce Clause to hold that the Federal Arbitration Act overlaps with–and preempts–Washington’s Condominium Act. The Court decided that selling and warrantying condos is “interstate commerce” because, well, some of the stuff used to build those condos probably came from another state. So much for limited federal power, and so much for states standing up for state authority against federal overreach.

 
(P.s. I actually think the Washington law is a boon for lawyers and harmful to builders, investors, and the economy. But if Washington State’s raison d’être, at least at times, is simply to serve as a warning to other states … isn’t that what “50 laboratories of democracy” is all about?)
 
Cross-posted at SaveOurStates.com. 

This Post-Dispatch article about the H1N1 vaccine mentions that St. Louis city sent most of its vaccine supply to hospitals and pharmacies. Some doses have been distributed for free in schools and existing public clinics, but the city didn’t open any new free vaccine clinics like the ones in other cities.
It was a smart move [...]

As my colleague Bob Poole noted the other day, “Since its creation in 2004, the Transportation Security Administration has spent $40 billion on aviation security. Yet an amateur terrorist succeeded in getting on board Northwest flight 253 with a well-known type of explosive concealed on his person.”

Yes, 8 years since 9/11 and $40 billion, and the only thing that saved the lives of those on that plane was the wary among them. The system we have is not working.

I am disturbed to see that the most prominent response to this attempted terrorist act is cries for the TSA to spend billions more on full-body screening machines.  I’ve been hearing that all over talk radio, and Business Week confirms “Calls for Full-Body Screening Grow“.

But a Tuesday Washington Post story (read it here) noted “The foiled attack confirmed repeated warnings about mismanagement and waste in devising new safeguards.”  The article goes on to discuss “a long series of public and confidential government findings that the massive push for new high-technology systems – some of them promising almost science-fiction-like abilities to detect and communicate threats – often has fallen short. According to these findings, billions of dollars are being wasted on systems that do not work or are behind schedule.”

And perhaps most damning of all “A plan that would have helped focus the development of better screening technology and procedures – including a risk-based assessment of aviation threats – is almost two years overdue, according to a report this fall by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.”

How can people respond to this attempted attack by saying the most important thing to do is give more new equipment to an agency that over and over shows it cannot plan for or manage the equipment it already has??  How about we start by putting the TSA management in a room with some coffee and donuts and don’t let them come out until they have a strategic plan for airport security? Then we demand they implement procedures to effectively use existing equipment effectively?  THEN, if they can do that, we look at what new equipment they need.

We can improve our safety by throwing more tech at it. The people using the tech have be using it strategically and correctly, or else it is just more toys for them, and more delays for us, and amature terrorists can still penetrate the system.

The chairman of the American Association for Justice’s Brain Injury Litigation Group, Chicago attorney Gordon Johnson, has already deduced that now-fired Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach was at fault in the handling of a player who had suffered a…

Important New Laws Take Effect in 2010
By State Representative Kim Thatcher,

Nearly 500 new laws take effect this month as a result of action taken by the 2009 Legislature. Here is a list of some of the more notable changes in state statute…

Daren,

I can't say if ESPN has handled the Mike Leach story as fairly as it could because I've spent far too much time in my car listening to the network over the past few days. And I have heard several of the hosts include statements and sound bites from players who defended the coach and suggesting that Adam James was a prima donna with a father who was a "helicopter dad," hovering around…

The taxes in the House health care bill have the potential to significantly reduce small business growth and formation.
They do this by taxing modified adjusted gross incomes in excess of $350,000. Modified gross income includes dividends and capital gains. The tax rates are increased by 1 percent for incomes of $350,000 to $500,000, 1.5 percent [...]

Chester Finn and Frederick Hess in the Education Gadfly point out that of the nearly $100 million in federal stimulus dollars which have gone to education, $68 billion was spent in 2009 to protect jobs, jobs, jobs. Here is an…

After repeatedly failing to keep its finances in order, the State of California is heading, hat in hand, to Washington, D.C., for—what else, in these times?—a federal bailout. Yes, now the Golden State is asking the other 49 states to subsidize its profligate spending.

According to an article in today’s Wall Street Journal,

Facing a $21 billion shortfall through June 2011, California leaders want billions of dollars in budget relief from Washington that could head off deep cuts expected to state programs.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will ask the White House to waive rules that require the state to spend its own money on certain programs to receive federal funds, according to California officials briefed on the Republican’s coming budget proposal.

Such relief, combined with additional stimulus funds, could save the state as much as $8 billion in the next 18 months, the officials said.

State Senate President Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat, will visit Washington in coming months to lobby Obama administration officials and the California congressional delegation for aid. His message: The national economy will depend on California’s recovery.

In other words, in the modern parlance, California is “too big to fail.” As goes California, so goes the nation, as the saying goes. Let us hope not. And, as another WSJ article from earlier this week entitled “After the Bailouts, Washington’s the Boss” illustrates, the private sector is learning that those bailouts come with a high price: the loss of control and freedom over one’s own affairs. This should serve as a cautionary tale to other governments looking for a handout.

Moreover, that $21 billion deficit estimate is surely on the low side. As has routinely been the case over the last several years, the budget gap figures will continue to rise, and some sources already put it at over $36 billion.

The WSJ article additionally noted: “Mr. Schwarzenegger last week sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the California congressional delegation, saying the proposed national health-care overhaul would cost the state $3 billion to $4 billion a year.” So much for being revenue-neutral, much less saving money somehow. Even by government numbers, which notoriously underestimate costs and overestimate benefits, the health-care “reform” plan will be enormously expensive—and increased government control will surely reduce, not increase, consumer choice and service quality, as has done in this and every other industry in which it has been imposed.

In his budget proposal scheduled to be released on January 8, Schwarzenegger will reportedly propose continued state employee furloughs and raiding local transit agencies’ funds (again), as well as revive the idea of generating additional revenue by allowing oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast. I sincerely hope there is more substance and focus on structural reforms than that. How about outsourcing numerous government services to more efficient providers in the private and non-profit sectors, reforming the pension system, improving the state’s woeful business climate by reducing taxes and regulatory burdens, reducing exorbitant state employee salary and benefits costs and enacting significant and needed reforms to the state’s pension and retiree health care systems, eliminating low-priority and poor-performing programs, getting rid of duplicative and unnecessary commissions and boards, and implementing a debt limit and a real spending limit? California policymakers need to finally get real if the state is to avoid total collapse. In the meantime, though, if the actions of the powers that be in Sacramento these past few years are any indication of their future actions and motivations, I’m not holding my breath.

Related research and articles:

» Reason policy study: Citizens’ Budget 2003-05: A 10-Point Plan to Balance the California Budget and Protect Quality-of-Life Priorities (more applicable today than ever)

» “How to Fix California”

» “Getting California Back On Track”

» California Performance Review Commission Report (over 1,200 recommendations to save an estimated $32 billion over 5 years)

The American Association for Justice is holding its winter convention in Maui at the end of January. The AAJ semi-annual gathering was in San Francisco last summer and attracted many national political figure amid the congressional debate on health care…